Inspirational Quotes about Judgment / Criticism

My friend, if God does not judge His creations, why would we ever want to judge them? God loves His creations, and if we do anything but love His creations, we will have a feeling of separation. The opposite of love is fear, and fear is manifested through judgment. Judgment is the basis for separation, which is the ego’s goal. When we judge a brother or sister, be it in thought or action, we create a sense of separation, which then results in feelings of guilt. Inwardly, we feel guilty because we judge what God loves and sees as perfect. If we judge God’s child, then, by definition, we have judged ourselves. If we judge ourselves without knowing that we are doing so, then we create confusion. Once we experience enough confusion we create a chaotic state.

Once you awaken from your dream, you will have no interest in judging those who sleep. And if they curse or kick you while they sleep, you will simply understand that, in truth, all they are doing is dreaming. Every sin, error, accusation and judgment, regardless of form, is forgiven. They are forgiven because you know that they are asleep. That is why once you are healed, once you awaken, the people you meet will be healed. Your healing and awakening is what is required for the world to be healed. Forgive the world, and you will be set free from it.

Like a drug dealer, we continue dispersing our judgment with no regard for how our behavior affects those with whom we interact, or how our behavior affects those with whom the people we have judged interact. Imagine being a pebble falling into a pond. The pebble might see and experience the ripples it created by its interaction with the pond. Even as the pebble slowly sinks to the bottom of the pond, it might look back and see the ripples expanding beyond the point of interaction. But soon, as it continues its journey into the pond, it loses contact with the point of interaction. Yet, even though it has lost its view of the surface, the ripples continue to expand, changing the surface and edges of the pond in a way the pebble might never see. Just as the pebble falls into a pond, our judgment of others will be dispersed and shared, and will touch an innumerable number of people that we will never see. Don’t believe for a second that what we say or do affects only the person with whom we physically interact. Our judgment or acceptance will be carried from one to many, and they in turn will carry it to many more.

The ego blames because it wants us to believe that we don’t have the power to control our lives. By blaming everything outside of ourselves, it is training us to believe that everything outside of us has power over us, and over how we feel every moment of our lives.

You may have chosen to judge the past, and blame yourself and many others for where you are today. That is fine. Do that if you choose to, but at least for sanity’s sake, ask yourself what this behavior has and is truly offering you? Where has this behavior taken you? At the very least, ask yourself if you are at peace with how you feel about this way of thinking.

My friend, we cannot carry the past with us without feeling weighed down by it. We might not understand that what we are currently feeling is being weighed down. We might define it as being tired, stressed, depressed, but in the end, it is our choice to carry the judgments of the past with us that have made us feel this way. It may be our tendency to believe that some pieces of our past were never meant to fit, and will never fit into our puzzle, which frustrates us. Many of us may not yet understand that these pieces will fit, and that with their contribution we come closer to the puzzle’s completion. Yet again, I mention that we do not need to wait for the puzzle’s completion in order to be at peace and to be grateful for every one of its pieces now.

You will one day find peace and gratitude in the puzzle’s completion. You will one day acknowledge all the pieces for their contribution to the whole. And you will one day give thanks to each of the pieces for their participation. You will look back at those pieces you judged and criticized, and apologize for your interpretation of their value. You will look back, forgive and set free all the pieces you once convicted as guilty. You will kneel down in front of those you punished and sentenced to life without you, and you will ask for their forgiveness. They will in turn kneel in front of you, and ask for yours, and with one embrace all will be forgiven.

First, if you are asked for advice, by all means offer it, but do not be attached to any specific outcome, or to your brother or sister following your advice. My friend, you will save yourself and others years of stress, anger, disappointment and resentment if you allow your brothers and sisters to follow their own hearts. If your brothers and sisters know that they can come to you for advice without criticism and judgment attached to it, you will forever be their sounding board. They, in turn, will forever respect and most importantly, listen to what you have to say. If you are attached to your brothers and sisters following your advice, you will end up judging and criticizing their efforts and decisions. They, in turn, will put up walls every time you question or try to advise them.

Trying to be who you are not is hard. Negative and judgmental thoughts, emotions and reactions, simply aren’t who you are. Because you’re acting as someone you are not, this will drain you of energy. Spending time protecting and defending valuelessness, what you are not, is draining. Release these emotions, and you will be set free. Release these emotions, and you will have more energy than you ever thought you could have.

The ego has the world judge and criticize you for not being like it, and the ego has you judge and criticize the world for judging you. Decide not to play the ego’s game. Do not judge the world for judging you. You release the world by forgiving it of its judgment of you. As a small child would judge you for taking a knife out of his hands, so will the world judge you for thinking unlike itself. Put the knife in a safe place where the child will not be able to reach it. The young child will not be able to reach the knife, and neither will the world be able to reach you with its judgment, for you are now in a higher place where you realize that what the world judges in you does not exist. Now, when the world attempts to judge and criticize you for your non-conformity, you smile, but not from a sense of superiority or importance, but from the relief and freedom you receive by not having to play the ego’s game.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error or shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” (13)

The more you choose to judge an individual or situation, the more an individual or situation will consume you. The more you judge a brother, sister or situation, the less joy you will experience in your life. This happens regardless of whether you believe yourself to be “in the right” or not. Judgment consumes joy. Again, in any moment, you have a choice, and it is between judgment and joy. The one you value more, in any situation, is the one you will end up experiencing.

Let’s take a personal example and work through it. Several years ago, I began judging a situation that involved my uncle who I had perceived as not using his power to offer me a better position in his company. In my perception, I had all the credentials necessary to reach the next step on the ladder and he could, because of his position, give it to me. This did not happen as I envisioned it would and I became quite upset. As I thought about the situation late one night, I understood that the emotions I was feeling were childish, so I quieted my thoughts, prayed and asked for clarity and peace in regard to this issue.

What do you have to lose? Offer God a moment of your time, and look upon the brother you once judged, with absolute love. Forgive all your brother’s past illusions of himself, and see him as God does. Offer this one moment to yourself, and you will be set free forever. Ask God to assist you in looking through your brother’s actions and into his soul. Truly offer yourself this moment, and it will change your life.

It will change your life, because it will allow you to see and acknowledge that regardless of what you think a brother has done to you, there is another way of looking at him. It will change your life because you will encounter a moment that extends forever. In this moment, you have the ultimate power to see life and your brother as you wish. Your brother is God’s perfect expression and not what you perceive he did to you. The ego has taught you to take an action that you thought a brother did to you and to judge him for it. The ego has you replace your brother’s truth with an action and judgment. Your brother no longer truly exists, but your judgment of his action now lives in his place.

The world is governed by rules enacted by the ego for the ego. One of the rules that this world tries to constantly reinforce in us is that there are times when judgment is a proper response. But would we judge a tourist from a foreign land for being lost? And isn’t this all our brother really is, a tourist in a foreign land? Aren’t we all just tourists in a foreign land? Every time a brother walks up to us, he is asking for directions, and it is up to us to react with judgment and send him to hell, or to react with love and remind him of heaven. And understand this: Every time we communicate with a brother, we are giving him directions to where we secretly live.

In order to live in the present moment, let go of past patterns that are inconsistent with the truth within you. Offer God the judgment of your brother or sister, the judgment that has brought you nothing but sadness, pain and regret. Let it go, and in turn, He will offer you eternal peace of mind and joy. Offer Him all of your past perceptions and He will offer you the eternal present moment. If you put aside the unfruitfulness of judgment, you could easily lift the many veils that you use to cover the present moment. Beneath the veils, you would rediscover the simplicity of faith, faith that the present moment is perfect. This rediscovery, that you need not add nor subtract or judge the present moment, will offer you total freedom and peace. And gratitude will become your only sane response to the offering of total freedom and peace.

The ego has taught us to call our brother or sister a stranger. The ego has taught us that when we first look at a brother or sister, we must immediately judge something about him or her. The ego does not explain why it has us react in such a manner. Yet we are trained so that our first reaction is not to question its motive, but to think like it thinks, and react the way it has taught us to react. The ego wants us to acknowledge it as our one confidant, the only one we can truly count on and trust. The ego will use words, it will use thoughts, it will use actions and reactions, judgments and blame. Its tools are as limitless as the illusions and the results they produce.

Sit alone in your room for ten minutes with a clock in front of you. For the first five minutes completely involve yourself in bringing to the surface any and all negative thoughts and feelings you have toward any individual in your life. Bring to the surface any negative thoughts you may be holding on to about strangers you have met, or someone on television, or whomever. Bring to these five minutes everything wrong you think they have done to you and judge, criticize and curse them for it. It is very important to feel how what you are thinking is literally changing your body, mind and spirit. For these five minutes dig everything out that you’ve been holding within the dark crevices of your mind and heart. But be aware of what your thoughts are doing to you physically and mentally. Do this exercise honestly and truly once in your life and you will never again question that your thoughts, even when they are directed at someone else – even a total stranger – will completely affect and change your mental, physical and spiritual state.

Now consider how your judgments of others and yourself throughout the day silently and viciously affect your mental, physical and spiritual state. These individual judgments might have a tenth of the venom of your thoughts during the five-minute exercise, but remember that there are 24 hours in the day. Imagine for a moment how all these “little judgments,” when accumulated throughout the day, end up affecting your mental, physical and spiritual state. Now multiply that by 365 days, and then multiply that by the number of years you have lived. Can you now begin to understand the power of your own individual thoughts and judgments? This is how the ego is advising you to live! These are the tools the ego has used and is using to mold you into who it wants you to be. Is it any wonder why you now question who you have become? Will you not, if only for a moment, consider the ego’s attempt and advice as corrupted, destructive and insane!

The reactions of my mother, which most people consider natural and correct responses, offer people a certain level of comfort. For if it did not offer a certain level of comfort, why would people continue to react this way? Attacking a brother or sister only offers a certain level of comfort because we believe that when we do so, we are released from the negative emotions we ourselves offer. Yet, if we were to look within, we would see that whatever we offer a brother or sister remains with us. If, in a car, we offer anger, that anger, as much as we want to believe that it affects the other driver, affects us more. We think that we experience release and comfort by attacking a brother or sister, but this is only a false release, a false comfort.

I invite you to look within. Does this so-called release truly bring comfort? True comfort manifests itself as the state of peace. Does attacking a brother or sister, regardless of how much we think we are right, offer us true peace? Shouldn’t comfort and peace of mind go hand in hand? Do these “comfortable” feelings come from actual comfort, or from habits and illusions of comfort?

Every effort has been made to provide accurate source attribution. Should any attribution be found to be incorrect, the author welcomes written documentation supporting correction for subsequent printings. For material not in the public domain, selection was made according to generally accepted fair-use standards and practices.

(13). President Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizenship in a Republic,” Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.

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